Before & After: A Design Visionary Gives a Neglected Istanbul Apartment a Fresh Outlook

Over a span of only a few years, Efe Kababulut has helmed a creative transformation of the furniture manufacturer Lazzoni that might take other family businesses a generation to navigate. When Efe arrived in America from Turkey in 2004, on the eve of pursuing a bachelor’s degree in industrial design at the Rochester Institute of Technology, the brand was "just selling sofa frames to a company in Texas for resale," he recalls. Now Lazzoni operates eight U.S. showrooms and enjoys a reputation for taut, multifunctional furnishings that appeal to urban dwellers.